Two weeks ago we had a discussion at NRC. A creative colleague objected to the word “customer”. “We have readers”, she rightly said. Choosing the wrong word is enough to block creative minds. Nonetheles, artists and journalists can also experience benefits from listening to other people.

Do you work with the creative type? Does he or she think you should only listen to your inner creative compass and not to customers? Well, read this article in the Harvard Business Review. How ballet dancers can be convinced to listen to the customer in Harvard Business Review.

While Big Data can tell you what, it can’t tell you why. That’s why some of the world’s most data-rich companies like Google, Twitter, Microsoft, and Facebook actively enlist consumers as active partners in helping them generate, refine, and evaluate products. Sometimes the most transformative epiphanies lie in human-to-human encounters, in what can be felt, and shared, and not merely in what lends itself to measurement.

I was very glad to hear that Facebook will make it possible to turn readers into paying subscribers. A lot is unclear though. Is it a metered model, will they take a big share in the revenue? As always impossible to talk to them directly, even after you met them. Facebook remains a closed Kafka-esque castle we publishers are walking towards, but will never enter.

My colleague Stijn Vercamer in Belgium wrote a great report on WebTomorrow (in Dutch). Check out what Gerry McGovern has to say. Focus on your existing clients in stead of only running after new ones. Marketing is like antibiotics: we are becoming and more immune to it.’